SBA Refusing to Release Press Office Staffer's Phone Records

PETALUMA, Calif., Aug. 12, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Small Business Administration (SBA) is refusing to release the phone records of Press Office Deputy Director Carol Wilkerson.

The American Small Business League requested all of Ms. Wilkerson's phone records for the month of March 2014 under the Freedom of Information Act on April 11, 2014.

The SBA responded by stating, "The records show no long distant calls during that time period. Only outgoing long distant calls are recorded and maintained in a file, local calls are not." The SBA claims during the entire month of March 2014, Deputy Director Carol Wilkerson did not make even a single long distance phone call.

The ASBL has filed an appeal of the SBA's response to their Freedom of Information Act request.

The ASBL initially requested Carol Wilkerson's phone records because they believe the SBA Press Office has engaged in a possibly illegal campaign to halt media coverage of the SBA's involvement in the diversion of billions of dollars in federal small business contracts to Fortune 500 firms, their subsidiaries and thousands of large businesses.

Beginning in 2005 the SBA Office of Inspector General referred to the diversion of federal small contracts to large businesses as, "One of the most important challenges facing the Small Business Administration (SBA) and the entire federal government today…"

Every SBA Inspector General since 2005 has reiterated the diversion of small business contracts to large businesses continues to be the number one problem at the SBA.

Even President Obama acknowledged the magnitude of the abuse at the SBA when he released the statement, "It is time to end the diversion of federal small business contracts to corporate giants".

NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, CNBC, MSNBC and RTTV have all reported on the diversion of federal small business contracts to Fortune 500 firms.

Data from the Federal Procurement Data System indicated in fiscal year 2013, 175 Fortune 500 firms and their subsidiaries received billions of dollars in federal small business contracts. Every year since 2003, the SBA has claimed the diversion of federal small business contracts to large businesses is the result of random data entry errors, miscoding, computer glitches and anomalies.

To date the SBA has never been able to explain why the supposed random errors always divert federal small business contracts to large businesses and artificially inflate the volume and percentage of federal contracts awarded to small businesses.

The SBA is also refusing to release all the emails of SBA Press Office Director Terry Sutherland for the month of March 2014.

In October of 2010, the ASBL appealed a case all the way to the Supreme Court in an attempt to obtain the emails of previous SBA Press Office Director Mike Stamler.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140811/135286

SOURCE American Small Business League